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Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Who is buying Donald Trump's properties? It's a secret

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/6/14/1671786/-Who-is-buying-Donald-Trump-s-properties-It-s-a-secret
"Shell companies aren’t that unusual in real estate. What is unusual is the extent to which they’re being utilized to purchase Trump properties. Over the last 12 months, about 70% of buyers of Trump properties were limited liability companies – corporate entities that allow people to purchase property without revealing all of the owners’ names. That compares with about 4% of buyers in the two years before. What’s particularly interesting about this is: It’s not the first time. A decade ago, when Donald Trump’s seventh bankruptcy had wiped out his ability to borrow, he was dragged back from the brink of financial failure by money from Russian oligarchs. That infusion of money came not only in the form of big investments in new building projects, it also came through a money-laundering scheme that created LLCs for the express purpose of grabbing Trump properties at premium prices. Among the dozens of companies the Almaty lawyers say the Khrapunov laundering network used were three called Soho 3310, Soho 3311 and Soho 3203. Each was a limited liability company, meaning their ownership could easily be concealed. What was sold then is a fraction of what secretive LLCs are buying from Trump today."